It's Official - Don't Ask, Don't Tell is repealed

The President Certifies Repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell

I am a little late reporting this, but on Friday President Obama made it official by certifying the repeal of DADT. From the President's statement put out on Friday:

Today, we have taken the final major step toward ending the discriminatory ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ law that undermines our military readiness and violates American principles of fairness and equality. In accordance with the legislation that I signed into law last December, I have certified and notified Congress that the requirements for repeal have been met. ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ will end, once and for all, in 60 days—on September 20, 2011.

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There are so many wonderful people who worked so hard to make this happen that I would not know where to even begin on acknowledgments. So I won't even try, but there are also a few hateful homophobes who deserve recognition for their help in getting this discriminatory law repealed as well.

Now don't get me wrong, it was never their intention to actually help get this law killed, but regardless of their motives, it was their over-the-top bigotry and outright lies that opened more than a few people's eyes up on the hill - and I am talking Democrats and Republicans.

So I'd like to take this opportunity to single out one especially over-the-top homophobe in particular (although there are so many from which I could pick). Her name is Elaine Donnelly, founder and President of the Center for Military Readiness.

Ms. Donnelly, an advocate for keeping the DADT policy firmly in place, testified before the House Armed Services personnel subcommittee back in July of 2008. But even though she was firmly against repeal, her wild-eyed, barely-coherent homophobic drivel testimony had the opposite affect on many of the people in attendance that day - so much so that Dana Milbank of the Washington Post (this article is so good, you really should click over and read it) wrote the following:

Inadvertently, Donnelly achieved the opposite of her intended effect. Though there's no expectation that Congress will repeal "don't ask, don't tell" and allow gays to serve openly in the military, the display had the effect of increasing bipartisan sympathy for the cause.

Now that we know that DADT is dead, you have listen to this woman testify. It is beyond unbelievable:




And so I thank Ms. Donnelly, once again,  for her help in getting DADT repealed. And I will end this post with another snip from Dana Milbank's most awsome article from July of 2008, but please go read the whole thing, it is that good:

Don't ask, don't tell. And, whatever you do, don't ask Elaine Donnelly to tell you what she thinks about gays in the military.

The House Armed Services personnel subcommittee made just such a miscalculation yesterday. Holding the first hearing in 15 years on the "don't ask, don't tell" policy, lawmakers invited a quartet of veterans to testify on the subject and also extended an invitation to Donnelly, who has been working for years to protect our fighting forces from the malign influence of women.

Donnelly treated the panel to an extraordinary exhibition of rage. She warned of "transgenders in the military." She warned that lesbians would take pictures of people in the shower. She spoke ominously of gays spreading "HIV positivity" through the ranks.

"We're talking about real consequences for real people," Donnelly proclaimed. Her written statement added warnings about "inappropriate passive/aggressive actions common in the homosexual community," the prospects of "forcible sodomy" and "exotic forms of sexual expression," and the case of "a group of black lesbians who decided to gang-assault" a fellow soldier.